Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1974
Abstract
The movement for divorce reform in the United States is a natural reaction to the nearly unmixed evil spawned by the fault system of divorce inherited from the English ecclesiastical courts. The need to establish the fault of one spouse in order to obtain dissolution of the marriage led, in many cases, to unnecessary additional discord between the parties where the divorce was contested, collusion between them where it was not, and perjury, subornation of perjury and distortion of our system of justice in either situation. While the conviction that the system must be replaced by something better is not novel, the -first comprehensive no-fault statute enacted in the United States was the California Family Law Act of 1969, which substituted "irreconcilable differences, which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage" as the major test for dissolution of marriage. The state of Iowa followed with its own sweeping legislation in 1970 and the movement for nationwide reform was on in earnest.
Recommended Citation
Harvey L. Zuckman, The ABA Family Law Section v. the NCCUSL: Alienation, Separation and Forced Reconciliation Over the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, 24 CATH. U. L. REV. 61 (1974).